Attorney wants evidence suppressed for former deputy clerk

ELYRIA — The attorney for Sierra Dozier, a former Lorain Municipal Court deputy clerk who recently was sent to federal prison for one year for mail fraud, is asking that the court suppress evidence she claims was illegally obtained during a raid May 14, 2013.
The Lorain Police Narcotics Bureau and the U.S. Marshal Violent Fugitive Task Force arrested Dozier in the raid at her home on Columbo Lane in Lorain.
Lorain Police Capt. Roger Watkins said an estimated $272,155 worth of marijuana was seized in the raid. Dozier’s 3-year-old child was in the house at the time of Dozier’s arrest. The Lorain Police Department found five bags of marijuana, cash and documents belonging to Lorain Municipal Court. The documents included traffic citations, checks payable to the court and envelopes.
Dozier is facing state charges of possession of drugs, permitting drug abuse, endangering children, tampering with records, theft in office and theft.
Julio Osario, who also was arrested during the raid, was indicted and is facing seven counts of trafficking in drugs, two counts of possession of criminal tools and a single count of possession of drugs. Osario is set for a pretrial March 31, according to court records.
Vicki Lynn Ward, Dozier’s attorney, wrote in the motion filed March 26, that there were five controlled purchases of cocaine conducted in March of last year. She said the transactions occurred between the confidential informant and Osario, and Dozier was not mentioned in the affidavit. The affidavit also does not indicate that anyone other than Osario was involved in the illegal drug activity, Ward wrote.
According to the motion, the day after the raid, based on the contents of the “illegally seized documents,” the court issued a seizure warrant restraining order on all of Dozier’s assets that were in her accounts with JP Morgan Chase Bank.
“... the Court must suppress any evidence of the non-drug related documents because they were illegally seized beyond the scope of the activity under investigation,” Ward wrote. “This evidence includes Ms. Dozier’s personal documents that had nothing to do with the police investigation of Osario’s drug dealing.”
Ward wrote that the officers knew they were only authorized to seize items that were only involved in Osario’s drug trade.
“Nothing in the supporting affidavit even begins to implicate documents that belonged to Ms. Dozier in the five controlled buys that the police conducted with Osario,” she stated.
Nothing in the affidavit hints at Osario’s use of Dozier’s bank account in his drug deals, Ward wrote.
“The authorities cannot use the illegal May 14, 2013 seizure of Ms. Dozier’s personal property to bootstrap the May 15, 2013 seizure order,” she wrote. “The authorities’ use of a search warrant to ‘explore and rummage through a person’s belongings is not permitted.’ ”
In the motion, Dozier asks for an oral hearing on the matter.

About the Author

Kaylee is the Avon-Avon Lake reporter, but you can catch her covering different stories across the county. She is a Kent State University alumna who enjoys family, friends and everything Cleveland. Reach the author at kremington@morningjournal.com
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